Ebay has lost a bid to have a Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit over alleged violation of antitrust laws rejected.

The DoJ claims the digital auction giant has abused antitrust rules by agreeing with Insuit not to hire each other’s employees.

The agreement was signed by eBay executives including ex-CEO Meg Whitman and Intuit co-founder and ex-CEO Scott Cook between 2006 and 2009 to avoid hiring each others’ workers.

The online marketplace argued that the DoJ’s lawsuit had to be dismissed as it exclusively reflects discussions between eBay and Cook, and, since Cook was an overlapping director of both firms, the government could not claim a conspiracy existed between two separate units.

However, US District Judge Edward Davila ruled that the government has ‘plausibly’ claimed there was an actionable agreement between both firms.

Davila also approved eBay’s motion to reject a parallel lawsuit by the state of California.

In 2012, eBay was sued by state and federal antitrust regulators, and in 2010, six technology firms, including Intuit, also faced similar lawsuits, though they settled the issues out of court.

Last week, the online retailer also signed an agreement to acquire online payment platform Braintree for $800m as part of efforts to boost its online payments service PayPal.